Children are bored, lonely and miserable learning from home and have gone backwards in their education - according to the head of Ofsted.
Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has said many families have been stretched “almost to breaking point” with remote education.
She was speaking ahead of children in England beginning to return to the classroom from Monday.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “A large proportion of children are just bored, lonely, miserable.
“Remote education has been a sticking plaster that we have had to apply, but it just doesn’t replicate what you get when you have good teachers in good schools and the social benefits of being in school alongside your peers.”
She said that some younger children have been “going backwards” in the language they use, and the ability to use a knife and fork – while there have been signs of increased mental health problems among older children.
Ms Spielman said it was “important” that children get the “full amount of schooling that we know that they can cope with and benefit from”.
Asked whether school days should be longer, or holidays shorter, she said: “I think we need to make sure children get their full allocation of schooling.
“Around the world we see quite a bit of variation in the number of hours of teaching that children get across the school year.
“What is important is that we make sure that children get the full amount of schooling that we know that they can cope with and benefit from.”
Ms Spielman also said she hoped measures such as coronavirus tests for pupils and the wearing of face coverings in secondary schools would be in place for “as short a time as possible”.
“I understand the need for … infection controls, but at the same time I hope that it needs to be there for as little time as possible.”
